waco trail / german bugs -- from spyking list

[Ray Arachelian <sunder@brainlink.com>]

15)From: SpyKing@thecodex.com
Subject: Re: Deadly Physical Force

This thread might be getting tired but I ran across something that is
applicable. I make no judgement on who is right or wrong. I was not there
and only those who were know the truth. I'm posting this to show that
despite being acquitted in one court the shooter in this case is being
charged and brought to trial in another court on similiar charges. Some
will scream double jeapordy and others will say justice is prevailing. The
jury will have to decide... but I'll say one thing... If this guy IS
convicted the rules of engagement change forever... SWAT teams will have
to think twice before firing into dwellings... 

FBI sniper ordered to stand trial in Ruby Ridge case

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho (Reuters) - An FBI sharpshooter has been ordered to
stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter over the 1992 standoff
at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in which three people died, prosecutors said
Wednesday. 
         
Idaho Magistrate Quentin Harden ruled there was enough evidence to allow
the sharpshooter, Lon Horiuchi, to face trial on charges he acted with
negligence when he fired a shot that killed the wife of white separatist
Randy Weaver at his cabin. 
    
The standoff near Weaver's cabin turned into a rallying cry for extreme
right-wingers who condemned what they saw as federal government excesses
and held up Weaver as a hero. 
    
Boundary County prosecutor Denise Woodbury last August charged Horiuchi
and Weaver's friend Kevin Harris with the deaths of two people killed in
the standoff. The charges against Harris were later dismissed on the
grounds that he had already been acquitted of those charges in federal
court. 
 
In filing charges against Horiuchi, Woodbury accused the sharpshooter of
using a gun in a reckless manner by firing through the front door of
Weaver's house without first determining whether anyone other than his
intended target was behind the door. Horiuchi could face up to 10 years in
prison if convicted.
       
The standoff began Aug. 21, 1992, when U.S. Marshals approached Weaver's
cabin to arrest him for failing to appear in court on gun charges. U.S. 
Marshal William Degan and Weaver's 14-year-old son Sammy were killed in a
gun battle near the cabin, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was
called in later that day.

The next day, Horiuchi wounded Weaver and Harris and killed Vicki Weaver. 
Weaver and Harris surrendered 10 days later and were acquitted of murder
charges in the killing of Degan in a 1993 federal trial.

Weaver said in a telephone interview from his home in Montana that he was
pleased by Harden's ruling. 
   
``It's taken a long time, but sometimes the wheels of justice grind
slowly. We are looking to see some justice in all of this,'' Weaver said. 
``To be honest I hope that he (Horiuchi)  eventually sees that he is just
one of two scapegoats and that eventually he will tell the whole truth.''

Horiuchi's lawyers were due to appear next Monday before a federal judge
in Boise to ask that the case against the FBI sniper be moved to federal
court. 
        
Horiuchi was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, Feb. 13, in Idaho district
court in Boundary County, but that could change if his case is remanded to
federal court. 
         
Neither Horiuchi's lawyers nor Woodbury were immediately available for
comment on Harden's ruling. 



16)From: SpyKing@thecodex.com
Subject: Germany to restore bugging  
                        
Thursday January 8, 1:58 PM GMT

Germany to restore bugging banned since Nazi-era

BONN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - German political leaders agreed on Thursday to
allow police to bug apartments of suspected criminals, restoring a
crime-fighting tool banned since abuses by the secret police in the Nazi
era.

Leaders from Chancellor Helmut Kohl's centre-right coalition and the
opposition Social Democrats (SPD) said they had reached a deal allowing
police to plant microphones in private homes of suspected criminals for
the first time since 1945. 

Both houses of parliament are now expected to quickly pass the
long-debated measure, which police have argued was needed to better fight
organised crime and bring the country in line with other nations that
allow electronic surveillance. 

Germany, which reacted to the Gestapo's abuses with some of the Western
world's most extensive civil liberties laws, has long resisted any
relaxation in constitutional protections that have kept police out of
private homes.

Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said the agreement would give police the
necessary tool to fight organised crime.

"This is a decisive step towards more effectively fighting crime," Kanther
said. "We can now keep surveillance on suspected gangster apartments and
we will be able to better fight money laundering." 

The opposition SPD, which controls the upper house of parliament, the
Bundesrat, said it would support the measure after the government agreed
to partial exemptions for some professional groups such as priests,
attorneys and journalists. 

Police will be required to obtain advance court permission for any
surveillance.

Previously, police were only given rare exemptions to the constitutional
law protecting the private home. They were allowed to use listening
devices or electronic surveillance only with court permission if there was
concrete evidence that a serious crime was about to take place. 

Now authorities will have the power to use eavesdropping methods far more
extensively and will also for the first time be able to bug apartments
after a crime has been committed to obtain evidence.

Germany's post-war constitution barred police from electronic
surveillance, telephone taps and intercepting mail. The bans on telephone
taps and mail intercepts were relaxed in the 1970s amid a wave of
left-wing guerrilla attacks.